Initiated by the University of Lomé, in collaboration with ENPRO, the Togo-based NGO and operator of door-to-door pre-collection of waste, the composting unit aims at growing its activities and becoming financially self-sufficient by 2015.

Lomé's composting unit has been jointly set up by ENPRO, a Togo-based NGO that specialises in the pre-collection of waste and by the GTVD (Management Processing and Recovery of Waste) of the University of Lomé.

ENPRO was established in December 1999 by a group of six young university graduates. Its aim is to work in cleaning-up the city of Lomé and its surroundings by implementing the following actions:

- Undertaking a strict house by house collection of refuse and eradicating uncontrolled dumping;

- Making households conscious of the need for preservation of their environment;

- Recovering waste by composting and contributing to the reduction of methane emissions.

ENPRO has been operating since the year 2000 in the 5th District, situated in the North West of Lomé. It has been providing a household waste removal service in licensed areas for the payment of a subscription fee. The number of subscribers has risen in January 2012 to 1500. ENPRO is furthermore conducting activities involving the eradication of uncontrolled dumping in order to encourage new subscribers.

The city of Lomé is faced with administrative difficulties in the management of household waste. Despite the new project entitled “Projet Environnement Urbain de Lomé” (PEUL) (Urban Environmental Project of Lomé), which the Municipality of Lomé and the NGO are piloting, the collection rate remains low, except in the more privileged neighbourhoods. Uncontrolled dumping of waste continues in various places in certain neighbourhoods. The simple piling up of waste generates methane emissions, which are harmful to the environment and pollutes tap water. Studies have shown that the present production of household waste in the 5th District is of around 107t per day or approximately 39,000t per year. The North West zone of the 5th District is the area that is least well covered by the PEUL Project.

Furthermore, the farmers of Lomé are currently using expensive imported nitrates. The composting unit should meet their needs by providing them with a good quality locally produced organic fertiliser.

Hence in 2009, the GTVD Laboratory has produced a study to characterise waste and some composting tests with ENPRO.

As the results of these activities were positive, ENPRO has requested financing under the FFEM PPI program for setting up a composting unit in collaboration with Gevalor. Since 2010, Gevalorhas been involved in this project, in particular through the presence on site of an International Collaboration Volunteer in order to produce the access file to carbon finance.

This composting unit set up in 2011 was officially inaugurated on the 14th of February 2012.

It is currently transforming 5t of waste per day and employs 12 persons. The innovations tested there (on-table sorting, reduction of the sand in the household waste, etc.) will be sources of knowledge for other projects.

With the inclusion of the unit in the Afrocompost Program in early 2012, it will be possible to develop it sufficiently to achieve financial self-sufficiency. The target is to reach a processing capacity of 12,000t of raw, humid waste within two years, in order to then grow towards a capacity of 25,000t by the end of the 4th year. This composting unit will enable the reduction of greenhouse gas effect emissions of approximately 40,000t of CO2e within 10 years.